Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) says it will start operating two of its four machines at Kapichira Hydro Power Station by the end of February next year, in the process easing the power challenges the country is facing.

This was revealed on Friday when Egenco officialsand  the media visited the 129.6 megawatt (MW) station in Chikwawa to monitor progress of rehabilitation works following its damage by Tropical Storm Ana on January 24 this year.

Part of the damaged Kapichira Hydro-Power plant

According to Egenco chief executive officer William Liabunya, the two machines will be generating 65 MW when restored.

He said the company has rehabilitated most of the damaged parts of the facility and what is remaining is restoring a primary cofferdam which will help power generation.

Liabunya said:  “When we noted that the part [fuse plug] to be constructed by the Shire Valley Transformation Programme being funded by the World Bank will take a long time, we resorted to coming up with our own arrangement.

“Government has allowed us to do what we had proposed earlier on to deliver much quicker than what the World Bank was talking about. So, we are now restoring the primary cofferdam and hope to have the power plant partially operational by February.”

In his explanation, he said the company is constructing the cofferdam as a temporary measure to separate the river from the construction of the dam at the intake.

“This dam goes about 1 000 metres. We are thus restoring this which was installed by the original contractors, so that we restore power.

“It’s height will be 145.5 metres above sea level and this will allow us to generate power at least using two machines,” said Liabunya.

Kapichira Hydro Power Station restoration project manager Harry Msosa was upbeat about meeting the February deadline, saying the company has deployed adequate workforce to ensure that the project completes soon. 

He said: “We are working overnight to see to it that we can speedily deliver. We are, however, concerned with the rains but with all our spillway gates functional we know that whatever rain capacity that may come will be controlled by this.”

Currently, the hydro power is the main source of electricity in Malawi generating nearly 90 percent of the power.

But in the absence of Kapichira which provided about 129.6 MW to the national grid, Malawians have been subjected to about 12 hours of load shedding.

The power station suffered extensive damage particularly at its dam following the flooding of the Shire River due to Tropical Storm Ana in January this year. The situation forced Egenco to shut down the station for rehabilitation.

Liabunya: The damage is being rehabilitated

In an interview yesterday, Consumers Association of Malawi executive director John Kapito said what Egenco has done gives hope to consumers.

However, he said speedy implementation of the project is key. 

Kapito said: “We can only hope and wait that the set deadline will be met by the company because we cannot continue to suffer in darkness.

“A lot has stopped. Individuals as well as businesses are losing out in the absence of electricity. It is therefore our hope that the power is restored in the earliest time possible.” 

Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Lekani Katandula in an earlier interview indicated that the business community is eagerly waiting to see restoration of normal power supply. 

“The rehabilitation of this project is important as it will ease the power shortage challenge that has slowed down many businesses,” he said. 

Economics Association of Malawi executive director Frank Chikuta also said the restoration of power is crucial as energy is key in driving economies. 

He said: “Energy is key for a country to produce enough goods and services, it requires power hence this is critical.” 

The company is expected to spend about K46 billion to rehabilitate Kapichira Hydro-Power Station.

The parastatal got $60 million (about K61.8 billion) from the World Bank for the energy recovery project.

Out of the K61.8 billion, about K16.8 billion will go to the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) to buy transformers and other things that were damaged by the storm.

Egenco will use K18.5 billion to restore power generation while the rest will be used for redesigning and construction of Kapichira Dam.

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